Great news on the sequel to Hugh Jackman’s solo spin-off of the X-Men franchise today. Director Darren Aronofsky tells Drew McWeeny at Hitfix that the official title of the film will be The Wolverine. Jackman recently said this film will be “very different” from the first film, and Aronofsky seems to validate that point. The director emphasized that The Wolverine isn’t a sequel in the conventional sense, referring to the movie as a one-off.

Hitfix also reports that Aronofsky’s frequent collaborator Matthew Libatique will shoot the picture. Libatique coming aboard to be the cinematographer is very good news indeed. He shot both Iron Man films and recently finished work on Jon Favreau’s upcoming western/sci-fi epic Cowboys & Aliens. This being Aronofsky’s first foray into relatively commercial/tentpole fare, Libatique’s experience should be a fantastic asset. Hit the jump for more info on The Wolverine.

Not a great deal of information is known about the film so far, save for the fact that Hugh Jackman is starring and the majority of it will be set in Japant. Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) is writing the screenplay and filming is set to begin in March. They’ll shoot in New York for a while, and then the crew will move to Japan to shoot the rest of the film.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Gavin Hood’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but the more I hear about this project the more interested I become. Certainly Aronofsky’s involvement came as a bit of a surprise, but the guy’s a fantastic filmmaker so his involvement is very much welcomed. It’s a bit reminiscent of when we first heard that Aaron Sorkin was writing a movie about Facebook with David Fincher set to direct, and look how that one turned out. Jackman’s a fine actor and I have no doubt he and Aronofsky will turn out something special.

Aronofsky’s Black Swan is currently enjoying wildly enthusiastic critical acclaim, and he’ll certainly be busy come Academy Awards time in February. He recently signed on to direct Machine Man after he finishes The Wolverine. Jackman just wrapped filming Shawn Levy’s sci-fi/action film Real Steel. The Wolverine is set to be released sometime in 2012.